RVM 2.0 Fundraiser halfway

October 30th, 2013

Hello Ruby Lovers,

First off, I want to thank everyone who has donated to the RVM 2.0 fundraiser so far. Every contribution counts and I appreciate them all, no matter how small! I would also like to thank EngineYard for their sponsorship of RVM over the last two years, which has allowed me to add:

tests,

stable releases,

ruby binaries, and

automatic dependency installation (autolibs)

…among many others.

Working solely on RVM 1.x for the last few years has given me a unique view into the Ruby community. I discovered some of the most common issues users run into and tried to address them in RVM by automating installation and configuration to improve everyone’s experience with Ruby (both newcomers and experienced developers).

It was also during this time that I realized that maintaining a huge project in shell (20,000 lines) isn’t possible — it’s hard to separate modules, it’s hard to test, and advanced algorithms either slow down or need to be simplified to shell coding limitations. All of these lead to the idea of rewriting RVM in Ruby.

Initially, I resisted the idea of rewriting RVM in Ruby since there were some ideas touching static ZSH. However, thanks to DRUG, I was convinced. It seemed all the elements were in place, most importantly, binary rubies which are required for easy bootstrapping. As such, I came up with the RVM 2.0 slogan: “with RVM 2.0, you get one Ruby for free”.

I believe in Ruby. I believe it can be used for more than just web applications. We have a vast ecosystem of gems and Ruby implementations and we are constantly discovering new ways to use Ruby, like Rubinius X, JRuby 9k and Shoes 4. I want RVM 2.0 to become one of those projects that shapes the future of Ruby, and with your help, it can.

If you use RVM personally, please show your support. If you use RVM at work, please encourage your employer to show their support. Everything counts!